2015 U.S. Open field: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy headline qualifiers for Chambers Bay

With all due respect to the wonderful FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Sunday marks the start of U.S. Open week. Many of the top players in the world flew to the Pacific Northwest this weekend to start prep work at Chambers Bay, a completely unique course in the 115-year history of the national championship.

The field is nearly full, with the USGA using the next day or so to fill it out with sectional qualifying alternates, a final world rankings exemption and maybe a special exemption. The U.S. Open field is the largest of the season (British Open and PGA match it), going 156 players deep. It’s a logistical challenge for the USGA and one that the Masters never encounters. The green jackets at Augusta do things their own way, setting up their own qualifying rules to keep the field closed off and limited. It never exceeds 100 players and everyone can go off the first tee all four days. At the U.S. Open, 52 groups of three go off split tees for sun-up to sun-down golf, which, given the daylight this time of year, is an interminable march. Any slight weather interruption can throw the event off by a day or two with this field size.

Almost half the field earns an exemption through one of the typical methods at these majors. These are your more famous players, the regular Tour pros and guys at the top of the world rankings. It includes Tiger Woods, although the 14-time major winner isn’t exactly overflowing with exemptions this year. He’s still cashing in that 10-year exemption he earned by winning the 2008 U.S. Open, but that will run out in a couple years. He no longer qualifies based on his world ranking or success on Tour and at the other majors. That can (and probably will) change in the next couple years but his exemption status for this event is a discussion that’s already bubbled up at different times over the past year.

There are two more methods for earning a late invite to Chambers Bay. The first is pushing your way into the top 60 in the Official World Golf Rankings by Monday morning. Kevin Kisner, who lost to Rickie Fowler in that playoff at The Players, has been on fire on the PGA Tour for the past two months and he’s a lock to have a spot inside that top 60. Andy Sullivan, the Englishman who came to the States and posted a T13 at Memorial last week, is almost certain to creep over that rankings line as well.

Seven players started the week at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis with an outside shot to move into the top 60, but with one round to go, Matt Jones is the last guy with a legitimate chance to move up in the rankings. Jones starts the day in fifth place and needs a solo second to get the rankings points. Steven Bowditch is in 51st place and won’t get there. The final day projections:

Aside from that last world rankings exemption, there is one last hail mary exemption. The USGA can grant a player a spot in the field with what is called a “Special Exemption.” There’s no real criteria for this and it’s almost never granted. There are a few calls for the USGA to give Seattle local Fred Couples a spot via this method, but it seems unlikely at this point. The PGA is much more open to giving a swath of spots in their major championship field for whatever special reason, but it’s hard to see the USGA budging here. Couples tried to get in by playing the qualifying rounds and failed.

Here are all 74 players with exemptions at the top of U.S. Open week -- one or two more may be added via Monday’s world rankings, but Kisner is a lock and Sullivan is a near-lock already. Duplicates are not included -- i.e. a player is listed by his first exemption earned according to the USGA’s 14 different methods. Rory McIlroy, for example, earned a spot in the field five different ways, but is listed under the championship’s first method of getting a spot.

The USGA is fond of saying their biggest championship is the most democratic in golf. It really is “open” to anyone who has the game (1.4 handicap index) and a small qualifying entrance fee. Of course, the chances of playing your way into the field are minuscule -- Golf Digest calculated last year that you have a better chance of breaking out of prison in your life than qualifying for the U.S. Open. More than 10,000 players give it a shot at local qualifying sites throughout the month of May. That group is then whittled down to ~750 players who compete at 10 sectional sites across the United States.

At the start of the week, 58 players are into the field via US sectionals. But there are a handful of alternates from those sites and a few should get a late spot, although the USGA never really discloses the murky process for how they pick an alternate.

In addition to the 10 US sites, there are also two separate international sectionals in Japan and England. In total, there are 76 players already in the field via qualifying:

The 74 exemptions and 76 sectional qualifiers puts the field at 150. There are currently six open spots on the tee sheet for the first and second round. We know that Kisner and Sullivan are likely to take up two more spots, and Jones could come in late in Memphis and steal another.

Unless the USGA goes for that Fred Couples special exemption above, the final three or four spots should come from this sectional qualifying alternates list. As I noted, the USGA doesn’t disclose exactly how or why they choose who they do from the alternates list. These are your alternates waiting for a late call this week (the first alternates from the Japan and England sectional are already in the field above).